Tragic Details About The Cast Of The Last Of Us

The following article mentions mental health and addiction issues.

If there is one thing fans of the HBO series "The Last of Us" can agree on, it's that the adaptation of the Naughty Dog video games is a pretty heavy show. Whether you tune in to see how Ellie and Joel's paternal bond develops or you are in it for the gritty zombie action, there's no denying that these characters undergo unimaginably grueling circumstances.

As the series progresses, you may have found yourself wondering why the cast of "The Last of Us" looked so familiar. Many of the actors have been in the spotlight for some time, while others are still rising stars. But if there's one thing that many of them have in common (besides fighting Clickers infected with Cordyceps on the show, of course), it is that they've dealt with devastating, traumatic, and difficult circumstances in their own lives. From challenging career hiccups to heartbreaking loss, mental health issues, and harsh online criticism, here are the tragic details about the cast of "The Last of Us."

Over the last decade, Pedro Pascal has gone from "Game of Thrones" to "The Mandalorian" to "The Last of Us." On the post-apocalyptic series, he plays Joel, a deeply flawed yet sympathetic protagonist. While Pedro Pascal's incredible evolution over the years certainly showcases his impressive acting chops, it's also a reminder of just how far he's come since he and his family were forced to leave their home in Santiago, Chile.

On a June 2023 episode of "SmartLess," Pascal recounted his family's immigration story, as they fled from Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in the '70s. "My parents, they were just very young when they had my sister and myself," the actor said. "I wouldn't say my parents were revolutionaries by any stretch of the imagination, but they were young, liberal college students."

Although they weren't active in the political resistance movement, they did provide some medical care to a revolutionary who had been shot. The man was eventually arrested and authorities ultimately forced him to give Pascal's family up. "My parents had to go into hiding for about six months," the "Narcos" star explained. When Pascal wasn't even a year old yet, his family snuck into the Venezuelan embassy and demanded asylum, leading to them settling down in Texas.

Since the '80s, Robert John Burke has played a range of complex characters, from Billy Halleck in "Thinner" to Bart Bass in "Gossip Girl" and the homophobic Seth in "The Last of Us." While it seems he often leans into less sympathetic characters, the actor himself is a remarkable person. In addition to his decades-long career in front of the camera, Burke has also been working as a volunteer firefighter for decades.

While speaking on the "JENerational Change" podcast in September 2022, the actor revealed that he was inspired by a man named Captain Patrick Brown. "He was the captain of Ladder 3 in New York City, FDNY, and he fell on 9/11," Burke said. "He was my best friend." The actor recounted how, on that fateful day in 2001, he and Brown's brother went looking for the captain in the rubble. They found him, but it was tragically too late. Soon after, Burke left the city and began his training in Suffolk County, New York. "My fire service is dedicated to the memory of my friend," he remarked.

When Anna Torv was first introduced in Season 1 as Joel's smuggling partner, the Australian native was practically unrecognizable. Tess from "The Last of Us" looks totally different in real life, demonstrating just how versatile Torv is as a performer. Although the actor may not have experienced anything as grueling as, say, an apocalyptic-level zombie outbreak, she has certainly faced significant setbacks throughout her life. 

From a young age, Torv had a knack for theater and, after a successful audition, she enrolled at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney, Australia. "I was just broke at drama school, but I loved it," Torv told The Australian Women's Weekly in August 2023. After performing in a handful of plays post-graduation, she moved to London — which is where things went downhill. "I found London really hard. I got really close to a couple of things and then it was always 'your accent' ... I didn't have much cash," she said. "It was pretty humbling, to be honest, because I'd done a couple of big parts in Australia and I ended up playing an ICU nurse in 'Frankenstein.'"

Torv said that her experience filming the made-for-TV movie was far from what she'd hoped. "Everyone was pretty rude," she remarked. "I had one line and the cast didn't even look me in the eye." Thankfully, she landed the UK series "Mistresses" shortly after and, that same year, made her name as FBI agent Olivia Dunham on the wildly popular show "Fringe."

With her roles in "Alien: Romulus" and, of course, "The Last of Us," Isabela Merced has officially shed her Nickelodeon child star image. She's seen an impressive amount of success already in her career already, but not without more than her fair share of setbacks, starting from the time she was just a child.

One night, when Merced was still in grade school, an electrical fire started at her family's house. She was at home with her mom and brothers, but her father, a firefighter for the Cleveland Division of Fire, was at work. Merced's dad ended up responding to the call and was on the scene to help put out the fire. Sadly, the home burned down. 

As devastating as the ordeal was, there was a silver lining in it all: Merced fell in love with acting. "My parents were like, 'How do we distract her in a way that's healthy, so she's not so bothered by the fact that we lost everything?'" she told Elle in September 2021. A few successful stage auditions later, Merced and her family packed up and moved to New York so she could pursue her acting career.

Before she took on the part of Maria, "The Last of Us" actor Rutina Wesley's breakout role came about on another HBO supernatural series. On the small screen adaptation of "True Blood," which premiered in 2008, Wesley played Tara Thornton, BFF to Anna Paquin's Sookie Stackhouse. The "True Blood" cast also happened to include her longtime friend and fellow Juilliard alum Nelsan Ellis, who played Tara's cousin Lafayette. Their chemistry on the show was undeniable, and their real-life connection ran deep. As she told Edge Magazine, "[W]e have known each other forever and have been good friends throughout. So it was great when he recommended me for the part. It was so natural because he knew my work and what I was capable of."

Ellis tragically died in July 2017 due to complications from alcohol withdrawal at age 39. Wesley was understandably saddened by the loss of her friend. "He was a lover, he loved everything which is why people didn't understand him," she wrote in a tribute provided to Entertainment Weekly. "He could move your soul to whole....in a moment....an arTeest!" Wesley wrote. The actor signed off, "How I loved you...fiercely vulnerable shining beacon...stand tall my friend, rest, peace has finally found you."

Throughout his decade-long career, Danny Ramirez has popped up in a heaping handful of projects, including "The Last of Us" as Manny, one of Abby's crew. Given his success and obvious talent, it would be fair to assume that he always knew he wanted to be an actor. However, growing up, Ramirez had a totally different dream that was cut short.

Sports were his first love, as the "Top Gun: Maverick" star explained during his March 2021 interview with The Face, and he hoped to become a professional athlete one day. "It was all I saw myself as," Ramirez explained. ​"I couldn't see myself interact with the world any other way." Initially, he had his sights set on joining the NFL, but after learning he didn't have the right build, the star pursued soccer, which he went on to play in college. Sadly, injuries stacked up and playing professionally was looking less likely. While Ramirez was sidelined on crutches, he was approached to work as an extra in "The Reluctant Fundamentalist." From there, his love of acting blossomed, and the rest is history.

On "The Last of Us," Bella Ramsey plays Ellie, a character who seems fearless in practically every scenario she's thrown into. Understandably, the actor isn't as resilient as their on-screen role and has come up against some mental hurdles in their life, including emetophobia.

In speaking on "The Louis Theroux Podcast" in May 2025, Ramsey explained that they used to suffer from "this really intense fear, phobia, of vomit and everything to do with it." The actor elaborated, "If you feel a bit sick, if someone else feels sick or is sick, the whole thing is absolutely terrifying." Even a stomachache or the possibility of getting a virus kept Ramsey on edge and, at age 13, the "The Last of Us" actor began avoiding situations where they could get sick. "There was a time in which I couldn't leave my house ... because everything outside was a threat," Ramsey said, adding that they would stay home for months at a time. "It's such an all-encompassing fear."

Ramsey has taken steps to work through this phobia, including getting involved with Emetophobia Free's The Thrive Program. The actor no longer struggles with emetophobia like she did for so many years. "I think that I have a slightly stronger reaction to vomit than the average person, or I'm slightly more averse or afraid of it," they said. 

From "Boardwalk Empire" to "Westworld" and now, as the ruthless WLF leader on "The Last of Us," Jeffrey Wright, too, has been an HBO regular with increasingly gritty roles. He's been fortunate in his path to success and his work in front of the camera has earned him several award nominations, but the actor unfortunately hasn't been spared heartache in his life. His father died when Wright was just a child, leaving his mother to look after the young would-be actor on her own. The two shared a close bond, and when she died in 2019 from colon cancer, he was devastated.

When Wright received his Oscar nomination for Cord Jefferson's "American Fiction," the first person he thanked was his mother. As the "The Last of Us" actor explained to Extra in January 2024, "My mom passed a little over a year before I got the script for this, and when [my son] saw the film, he said, 'You know, I see a lot of myself in that character you play, but it's also a beautiful homage to Grandma,' and I said to him, 'Yeah, you got it.'"

Thanks to high-profile projects like "Booksmart," "Dopesick," and "Apple Cider Vinegar," Kaityln Dever racked up an impressive net worth and has made quite the name for herself. Her career only continued to pick up steam when she joined "The Last of Us" as Abby, the WLF member who seeks vengeance against Joel in Season 2. Sadly, Dever's celebration of securing the role was short-lived, as her mother died shortly before they began filming.

The first scene she shot was an especially difficult one (for those who have seen it — yes, that one). "To be as honest as possible," Dever told Entertainment Weekly in April 2025, "I will just say that my days leading up to this scene were horrible." The star's mother Kathy had been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer 14 years prior, but tragically succumbed to her illness in February 2024, just a couple weeks before Dever was due on set. "My mom's funeral was three days before I did my first day. So I was sort of in a fog. I was in a daze," she remarked.

Jesse is responsible and extremely confident in his decisions on "The Last of Us," but the actor who plays him in real life struggles a little in that department. At an early age, Young Mazino was bitten by the acting bug, but he was fairly shy about it. "I didn't want my friends in athletics to know I was doing the musical, so I never told anyone until they'd see me on the stage," he said in a March 2025 interview with Vanity Fair. "I was dealing with an existential crisis before I even knew what that was."

After Mazino's career began to take off, he struggled with believing he belongs in the spotlight. As he said to GOAT in 2023, "When Netflix called me to meet them, [I had] imposter syndrome. I learned over the years that how to deal with rejection is to just shut down," he said. 

While imposter syndrome can be hard to shake, it sure can help to have someone like Ali Wong in your corner. In a separate chat with GQ, Mazino shared a piece of advice Wong once gave him: "You can have the career that you choose." It's a message that has stuck with him. "[S]he has no idea how that alleviates years worth of self-doubt and imposter syndrome," he said. Mazino received his first Emmy nomination for his work on "Beef."

Despite her incredible portrayal of Kathleen in "The Last of Us," the leader of a resistance group, Melanie Lynskey couldn't escape devastating backlash from internet users. It's understandable that some of the cast didn't meet the expectations of the video game's fans, which we'll explore more later. However, Lynskey's role hadn't even been part of the game and was created for the series. That, unfortunately, didn't stop people from body shaming her — including "America's Next Top Model" winner Adrianne Curry.

In February 2023, the former reality star wrote underneath a still of Lynskey, "Her body says life of luxury... not post apocalyptic war lord. Where is Linda Hamilton when you need her?" The actor clapped back on X, first clarifying that Curry's comments were about her cover shoot for InStyle magazine, rather than a still from the show. "I'm playing a person who meticulously planned & executed an overthrow of FEDRA. I am supposed to be SMART, ma'am," Lynskey added. "I don't need to be muscly. That's what henchmen are for."

When "The Last of Us" Season 2's cast was revealed, viewers were divided over whether or not Kaitlyn Dever was right to play Abby. In the game, her character is especially muscular but the actor didn't bulk up to the extent fans believed she should have. When asked about the negative chatter about her involvement in the series, she told ScreenRant, "It's hard not to stop myself from looking at it every once in a while."

Dever also apparently had to grapple with the fandom's strong feelings about her character. Without giving too much away, some of Abby's actions have been deemed unforgivable by some viewers. And apparently, some viewers have had a hard time separating the actor from the character. As Dever's co-star Isabela Merced said on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, "There are people that actually genuinely hate Abby, who is not a real person. ... And so Kaitlyn had to be extra secured by security when it came to the filming of this."

In an April 2025 interview with Capital Buzz, fellow "The Last of Us" actor Bella Ramsey shared a similar sentiment about their colleague. "Nobody hate on Kaitlyn. Why would you do that?" they said. "People hate on me too. ... We're playing characters, okay? And that's all there is to it." 

Thanks to roles like Marienne Bellamy in "You," Prudence in "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina," and Nora in "The Last of Us," it's clear Tati Gabrielle has some serious range. Before she landed the HBO series, she had previously worked with "The Last of Us" developer Naughty Dog on an adaptation of the game "Uncharted." As Gabrielle told Entertainment Weekly, Neil Druckmann, co-president of the company and showrunner of "The Last of Us" told her, "You're part of the Naughty Dog family now." With "The Last of Us" now behind her, the actor has taken on yet another project with the video game developer: "Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet."

Gabrielle was cast as Jordan in the sci-fi action game, and although she expressed excitement about the transition from television, some fans of the series were unhappy with the casting. "There was a lot of hate over me being a woman, me being a woman of color, me having my head shaved, all these things," the actor explained. Fortunately, Druckmann has had her back throughout the racist and misogynistic backlash. "Neil was like, 'Ignore it. No matter what, me and you, we're going to make something beautiful. We're going to make something that we're proud of,'" Gabrielle said.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health or addiction issues, please contact the relevant resources below:

• Message the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.
• Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).